Q: How would you sum up your swimming career?
A: I competed for 17 years. Starting here in Hastings on HYAC when I was 5 years old until I was 18 and graduated high school in 2000. I swam all four years of high school for HHS. Freshman year I qualified for state and was able to score in the top 12 in an individual event. My sophomore year, we won the GNAC conference title and at state I tied for second in the 100 yard freestyle. My junior year was our strongest team of my 4 years at HHS. We won GNAC conference title, and as a team placed 4th overall at State, which is one of the highest places a team outside of Lincoln and Omaha has ever had. Also as a Junior I was state champion in the 200 yard freestyle and swam a qualifying time for Junior Nationals in Seattle Washington. That year I was named a High School Academic All-American. My Junior and Senior years I was elected athlete representative for Midwestern Swimming (governing body for USA Swimming in Nebraska and Western Iowa), representing swimmers from Midwestern Swimming at the USA Swimming national convention. My senior year I had top 6 placed finishes at state in the 200 yard freestyle and the 100 yard Freestyle, and 3rd place finish in the 400 Free relay. After State swimming my senior year my coach, Jill Orton moved to Blair, NE, so the following summer I chose to swim for MOST, a team in Omaha with Coach Mike Hayhurst, who is currently the Scottsbluff head coach. During the summers while I was in college I swam for several club teams including Grand Island Quick Silver and trained with Scott Usher Olympian in 2004, and Heartland Aquatics in Lincoln.
I was recruited to swim in college by University of Wyoming, University of South Dakota, University of Nebraska, and the Air Force Academy. I signed my national letter intent for a scholarship with the University of South Dakota where I swam for 4 years 2000-2004. In college I earned several North Central Conference swimmer of the week awards. I was consistently in the top 16 in my events at the North Central Conference championship meets. With my highest place being 3rd in the 500 free my junior year. My senior I competed at NCAA Div. 2 nationals where my relay team placed 9th in the 800 Freestyle relay on place off of All-American Status. As a team in 2004 we placed in Top 10 at NCAA Div. 2 nationals.
Q: How do you think you’ve impacted the team?
A: I think my biggest impact on the HHS team is how the swimmers expectations and outlook has changed. When the season started the team had their normal expectations of just hoping to do well. As the season progressed their attitudes changed from hoping to do well to expecting to have great swims and improving. Their goals changed from hoping to make state, to expecting to make state. They started training harder than they ever have and pushing themselves to the limit every day in practice to make those goals come true.
Q: What is different about the program now versus when you were swimming at HHS?
A: One major difference was we had a large core group of swimmers that grew up swimming together on HYAC in high school at the same time. We had the same coach for many years who knew how to get the most out of each of us. We were a very talented group of swimmers that had a lot to prove. We would go into major meets expecting to win. It did not matter how large the meet was or who we were swimming against we went out to show how good HHS was. We trained hard together in practice every day pushing each other to new limits. Right now we have a small core group of talented swimmers. They are learning how to be great swimmers, and have shown major improvements in the two years I have been working with them. They are setting their goals higher and pushing themselves to get there. The swimmers now have not had the benefit of having the same coach for a number of years. They have not had the constant leadership to push them to new heights, set their goals high and achieve them. They have not yet realized how great they can become.
Q: How do you feel and what are you expectations for the state qualifiers?
A: I am extremely proud of our state qualifiers this year. They put in the work and earned their trip to state. They made great improvement this year to make it to state. On the men’s side we have three relay teams competing at state. I expect them to improve on their position and move up in their place. They have an outside chance to make it to finals and be in the top 16 in the state. We need to have the best swims of the season for that to happen, but if things fall in their favor we can do it. For the women, Katie Fast qualified in our only two individual events. Katie has set her sights on the school record in the 100 backstroke and has a great opportunity to make that happen at state. I expect our swimmer to go to state, enjoy the experience of state, and have their best swims of the season.
